So much for excuses!

I have the most wonderful parents, and I am so blessed to still have them. The wonderful thing about being a writer is that I often get to tell them publicly how wonderful they are!

Like I have said before, my parents are not much on letting people “soak in their juices of sorrow.” Once you wallow in that pit, some people never climb out.

Last fall I was really “soaking”. I have completed three marathons in the past decade, and last August I got (what seems like a PAPER CUT after reading this story) plantar fasciitis in one of my feet. Talk about painful. Now I’m not a woose, but I could not run (or even walk) for two months. I didn’t really miss it as much as I would have normally, because I had lost a huge amount of blood (another story), had low hematocrit, no insurance, and was “weaker than a popcorn f*rt”! Once I could walk again in November, it was exhilarating like NONE OTHER!

Well, the family of this young man in this story, never allowed him go into that pit of despair for one second! They kept him too busy to have time to go into that pit! They push, push, pushed him, much like a drill instructor who is NOT be your “BFF”, but rather SAVE YOUR LIFE and help you to save others.

I would say they have successfully saved this kid’s life. You see, Gabe was born with no arms or legs. Some parents may have coddled him and catered to his every whim, but guess what? In the “real life” parents generally “croak off” before the kids. Then what?

These parents made Gabe work so that he could be independent. Gabe will have the peace, assurance and confidence that “Hey, I can do this life thingie all on my own!” and the parents can “rest in peace” when it is there time to go.

You see, it’s not the parents who do too little for their kids sometimes that damages them, it’s the parents who do too much.

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